Samana province is probably one of the most filmed destinations in the Caribbean. For years, Survival-style realities have been filmed there. This 2023, the Dominican Republic won the Emerging Location award with the project “Film Friendly Samana,” that promotes Samana province as a film destination.
The Dominican Republic film agency, DCCine was in Cannes, France to receive the Global Production Award as an outstanding production destination. This award recognizes the production work being done in outstanding and emerging locations around the world, and great work in areas including sustainable production and diversity.
The Screen International and KFTV & Broadcast, with the support of Olsberg SPI, organized the awards event held during the Cannes Film Festival in France.
Opting for the award in two categories, the Dominican Republic received the Emerging Location award with the project “Film Friendly Samaná.” This section rewards the film agency for demonstrating a higher number of productions, attractive incentives, better service levels, a growing staff base and infrastructure, and a wide variety of filming locations. The country was nominated alongside Ireland, Saudi Arabia, Croatia and the United States.
Marianna Vargas Gurilieva, general director of DGCine, said the award is the result of months of efforts for the recognition of Samaná as an ideal filming destination. She explained the work in the province with senator Pedro Catrain and the mayors of six municipalities that all understood the value of the film industry for their communities and supported the Cinemateca on Wheels program.
The Award team highlighted that “the Dominican Republic was selected for the increase in productions developed in Samaná, its attractive incentives, its improvement in service levels, the growth of the specialized crew and its infrastructure, as well as its diversity of filming locations.” The jurors praised the work of the DGCine for its level of understanding of film tourism and the impact that film has on the region.
The country was also nominated in the Film Commission TeamAward section (best general film management) with the project “Dominican Republic – Dream It, We Have It,” along with countries such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, Switzerland, Jordan, the United States, Croatia and Australia, which was the winner with its project “The Australian Job.”
Dominican film industry is key to promoting the Dominican Republic to markets abroad and for the multi-sector employment, it generates in the tourism destinations all year round.
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DGCine
30 May 2023